Best New Food Hubs is a Food & Dining team project that shines a spotlight on the most exciting new restaurant cores in the Valley. These are not the establishment. These are the newly sprouted clusters that have grown out of unexpected places.

One of the Valley's hottest dining destinations right now is not in a bustling downtown or a charming, pedestrian-friendly neighborhood.

Rather, it's along the busy Seventh Street thoroughfare, a short strip from Missouri Avenue to just north of Bethany Home Road. Here, a slew of old buildings have been transformed into some of the most popular bars and restaurants in central Phoenix.

In the last several years, this emerging dining neighborhood has drawn prolific restaurateurs such as Sam Fox and Tucker Woodbury; notable local chefs such as Cullen Campbell and Doug Robson; and celebrity chef Scott Conant, who launched Mora Italian with pizza master Stefano Fabbri in early February.

The venues are a mix of family-friendly eateries, chef-driven places, trendy spots and late-night stops. They are almost entirely adaptive-reuse projects, and it's these interesting buildings with character, coupled with the right demographics, that have attracted many investors.

Decade of change

Jeff Ward said the landscape was much different when he first opened Fuego Bistro in 2006 in a 1952 building at Seventh Street and Palo Verde Drive. He calls his Latin restaurant the "grandfather" of the area.

"It's such a world apart since 10 years ago," he said. "My server and I would have a ball and mitt to play catch between tables coming in because it was really slow. Apollo's was so busy, and we were the only restaurant on the street."

There was no foot traffic for a long time. "I still don't know how we survived," Ward added.

Fuego sits across from what used to be Crown Imports, which operated for more than 50 years. In 2014, Buzz Gosnell and Niels Kreipke purchased the building and the land around it. Kriepke already had a lot of experiencing redeveloping buildings in downtown Chandler through his company, Desert Viking. Gosnell was formerly president of Woodbine Southwest Corp., which developed Kierland Commons.

FOOD HUBS IN METRO PHOENIX

"The bones of the (Crown Imports) building had a lot of character to it, and the potential from a design standpoint — the quaintness, the eclecticness — was an obvious attraction," Kreipke said. "One of our signature ways of looking at a project is how to save and salvage as much as possible. We really honor the history of the property and the architecture from that particular time period."

NOTABLE RESTAURANT: Stock & Stable | This contemporary gastropub is part of The Colony development. A diverse menu ranges from kung pao cauliflower to beer butt chicken to rigatoni with short rib stroganoff. On the second floor is Honor Amongst Thieves, a dark and moody speakeasy-inspired cocktail bar (pictured) that is a popular haunt for after-dinner drinks and people who work in the restaurant industry. | Details: 5538 N. Seventh St., Phoenix. 602-313-1001, stockandstable.com.
Patrick Breen/The Republic

NOTABLE RESTAURANT: The Womack | A sleek cocktail lounge on the southeast corner or Seventh Street and Palo Verde Drive, The cocktail menu features throwbacks with a modern twist, including the Gin Rickey, Pink Squirrel and Amaretto Sour. There's also a menu of shared plates, such as the lobster caprese, filet bites and deviled eggs. | Details: 5749 N. Seventh St., Phoenix. 602-283-5232, thewomack.us.
Melissa Fossum, Special for azcentral.com

Similarly, Ward is much busier now at Fuego and has signed a new 10-year lease.

"Now it's more urban," he said of the neighborhood. "There's lots of Ubers and cabs on Palo Verde, which is really exciting. I don't feel the competitive tension. People will come and eat here, go to Phoenix Ale Brewery and get a beer, and go see the performers at The Womack.

"There's so much more synergy than there's ever been," Ward said.

Winston Duong (L) and Josh Albers play ping pong with some drinks at the Yard on Jan. 27, 2017, in Phoenix.(Photo: Patrick Breen/The Republic)

One challenge has been parking. The Yard originally dealt with neighborhood parking woes, but now offers free valet service, while Fox purchased the former oil change facility next door and turned it into a parking lot. They also have an agreement with the lumberyard next door and an employee lot down the street.

Crown at 7th and The Colony, a new dining and retail complex on Seventh Street north of Missouri, both offer their own spacious lots, making it simple to park once and visit several places.

While it's not the most leisurely walking area, with the bustling traffic up and down Seventh Street, the clusters of restaurants in such a small stretch have made it easy for customers to go from venue to venue. Many also ride their bikes.

"It's the best place to live in town," Seth Shenfeld proclaimed while having drinks and appetizers at Joe's Midnight Run, which opened in 2016 next to Robson's Otro Cafe.

Shenfeld, 48, has lived about a block away for 12 years, and has no desire to leave "his bubble."

"We go out about five nights a week, and there's not many bartenders around here that we don't know," he said. "And, we can walk home."

Living in the area has become much more desirable. According to Street Scout, home values in The Yard/Cheery Lynn neighborhood in the 85014 ZIP code have climbed more than 40 percent in the last year. The median home price is now $350,000.

Bobby Lieb, associate broker for Homestart, has been selling homes here for more than 25 years. He said the change has come from many young families moving into the area.

"Not everybody wants the big monster homes anymore," Lieb said. "The homes are being turned over and remodeled. It's cheaper to live in central Phoenix than Arcadia or Paradise Valley."

NOTABLE RESTAURANTS

The Yard

A sign with all the details at the Yard on Jan. 27, 2017, in Phoenix.(Photo: Patrick Breen/The Republic)

The complex attracts a wide variety of people to its three restaurants: Culinary Dropout, Little Cleo's Seafood Legend and Barrio Urbano. The restaurants flank the main, massive covered patio that features ample seating, televisions and backyard games. It's packed during happy hour, on weekend nights and Sunday brunch.

Culinary Dropout is a playful gastropub that serves craft cocktails and beer, sandwiches, salads, meat and cheese plates, and main entrees including 36-hour pork ribs, rainbow trout and fried chicken. Little Cleo's is an intimate seafood restaurant where you can order specialties like crispy frog legs and bouillabaisse. Both are part of Fox Restaurant Concepts, the company founded by Sam Fox.

Before it became The Yard, the space used to be a Ducati and Kawasaki motorcycle garage. Driving up and down Seventh Street, Fox fell in love with the building south of Montebello Avenue. "The actual framework is attractive with old brick and interesting architecture. Four posts hold up the 11,000-square-foot structure, which would be impossible to build today," he said. "It's a structural piece of art."

Fox didn't have a concept at first, and it slowly came together. Culinary Dropout seemed to be the best fit for the area, and he wanted it to be "a neighborhood place to hang out" with pingpong, foosball and cornhole. Initially, there was only one bike rack, and three more were added because so many guests came in on two wheels.

Okra Cookhouse & Cocktails

Okra is a Southern-meets-Italian concept run by Cullen Campbell, owner of acclaimed Crudo in Arcadia. Campbell returns to his roots at Okra, inspired by his early days cooking at a small restaurant in Memphis. Okra is tucked away behind the main storefront of Crown on 7th, on the northeast corner of Seventh Street and Palo Verde Drive.

"We just really loved the Crown building. We really liked the fact that our landlords took an old building, cleaned it up tastefully, and kept it nice and simple," Campbell said. "I looked at a bunch of other places in the neighborhood, and this just spoke to me a lot more than other places."

The restaurant interior is sleek yet understated, with brick walls, exposed rafters and piping, and a quaint patio with strands of lights, stacks of firewood and wood-paneled planters. The menu features a variety of hefty plates — fried chicken skins; smoked ham hock with black-eyed peas; pan-roasted catfish with succotash.

The inventive cocktail program is run by Campbell's business partner, Micah Olson. The drink menu is ordered from lightest to boldest, with names like Paint it Black, Pea-sco Sour, Doves Cry and Blister in the Sun. Across the way is Phoenix Ale Brewery Central Kitchen. The two restaurants share a walkway that highlights signs preserved from Crown Imports.

Stock & Stable

A speakeasy is accessible above at Stock and Stable on Jan. 27, 2017, in Phoenix.(Photo: Patrick Breen/The Republic)

This contemporary gastropub is part of The Colony development, which also includes the sleek Pure Sushi Bar and the third Valley location of The Herb Box. The multimillion-dollar project is set in a restored office building, originally built in the 1950s, on Seventh Street north of Missouri Avenue.

Chef Joe Absolor, formerly of The Parlor and Clever Koi, helms the Stock & Stable kitchen with a diverse menu that ranges from kung pao cauliflower to beer butt chicken to rigatoni with short rib stroganoff. On the second floor is Honor Amongst Thieves, a dark and moody speakeasy-inspired cocktail bar that is a popular haunt for after-dinner drinks and people who work in the restaurant industry.

Owners Les and Diane Corieri of Evening Entertainment Group, known for their hip concepts in Scottsdale, said it was a no-brainer to develop in this area. In fact, they plan to open another restaurant, Casa Anejo, next to Stock & Stable. "It's an amazing location and the frontage is incredible," Les said. "I love what's happening on Seventh Street."

The Womack

The sign facing 7th Street at the grand opening of The Womack on Friday, Sept. 30, 2016.(Photo: Melissa Fossum)

The former Chez Nous, a legendary Phoenix bar for more than 40 years, is the inspiration behind this sleek cocktail lounge on the southeast corner or Seventh Street and Palo Verde Drive.

At first, developers Buzz Gosnell and Niels Kriepke approached Tucker Woodbury of Genuine Concepts with the idea of opening a Little Woody branch at Crown on 7th. But Woodbury felt it was too close in proximity and atmosphere to the restaurant group's Linger Longer Lounge, which is less than two miles away. When the old Apollo's building across the way became available, Woodbury jumped on it.

The Womack's walnut bar features a unique shape with sharp angles, reminiscent of the one at Chez Nous. Additionally the retro nods include the reflective ceiling and mirrored liquor display shelves. The velvet-flocked gold wallpaper and black leather tufted booths also are an ode to Chez Nous. So is the venue's name: Maureen and Andy Womack were the original owners of Chez Nous; hence, The Womack.

"We get people that are coming and transitioning from the dining experience, which is exactly what we thought would happen," Woodbury said. "People make an evening of it and come in for the live music, to dance. We get the old-guard Chez Nous crowd, and people of every ethnicity, every sexual preference. It's a cool melting pot of all kinds of people, no one crowd dominates."

The Roscoe Taylor Band, the original house band at Chez Nous, performs soul, R&B and funk tunes regularly at The Womack. The cocktail menu features throwbacks with a modern twist, including the Gin Rickey, Pink Squirrel and Amaretto Sour. There's also a menu of shared plates, such as the lobster caprese, filet bites and deviled eggs.

Joe's Midnight Run

Chefs work their magic inside the Joe's Midnight Run in a hip area in midtown on Jan. 27, 2017, in Phoenix.(Photo: Patrick Breen/The Republic)

Joe's opened last year in the former Joe's Drive-Thru Liquors space on Seventh Street just north of Bethany Home Road. The 1,800-square-foot building wasn't initially suited for a restaurant.

"It was a ratty liquor store that needed a lot of work," owner Rick Cordova said. "When we got in the building and toured it with the architect, we started to have ideas. We began peeling off the layers and saw these clean, Mid-century lines. It made sense that it would be a cool restaurant."

Workers had to break down layers of stucco, eventually exposing the terracotta block walls. The restaurant pays homage to the 1980s and '90s with Beastie Boys and TLC lyrics boldly spray-painted on the brick walls, and a bright neon sign that reads "Break Dance."

Food is served until 2 a.m. "There's not a lot of options in Phoenix for really good food late at night," Cordova said. "We provide that late-night option, and are a good accompaniment to the other restaurants and bars."

Dishes include familiar plates, like a shrimp Caesar salad, grilled wings and flat iron steak; and more adventurous options such as duck mole, sweetbreads and grilled pulpo. There's a wide selection of craft beers in three size options, wine on tap and signature cocktails like the Sunny Slope Iced Tea and Gin and Juice (Hold the Juice). You can even get rice bowls for your four-legged friends.